The Space Show
The Space Show
The Space Show focuses on timely and important issues influencing the development of outer-space commerce, space tourism,space exploration and space development. The Space Show is committed to facilitating our becoming a space-faring nation and society with a growing and self-sustaining space-faring economy. The Space Show also focuses on other related subjects of interest to us all.
Station feed:  Created by: David Livingston |
Created on: 12 May 2005 Language: English |
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Open Lines, Wednesday, 11-15-11 (67.98MB; download) -- Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: Commercial space, space policy, California space industry, NASA and more. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. As we started the Open Lines discussion, I put forth 12 discussion topics but not all interested the callers. I suggested talking about the demise of the California Space Authority and what this might mean for the California space industry, the Mars Society Rover Contest winner, the Space Launch System congressional program for NASA, military concern about being surprised in space, the House charter and costs for shuttle and COTS participants, a poll on Americans wanting to continue with the space program, the Mars Society and others re the Multipurpose Crew Vehicle, the space comments in the last CNN Republican Presidential Debate, the Science article about sunspots hibernating and a possible mini-ice age, Space Show copyright issues, and the possibly that Congress will revert to standard FARs instead of the Space Act Agreement for future CCDEV programming (see www.commercialspaceflight.org/?p=1551). After mentioning these possible discussion topics, our first call cam from Christopher Hearsey regarding astrosociology and the special issues of Astropolitics devoted to the subject. The special issue is Vo. 9, Number 1, 2011 of Astropolitics: the International Journal of Space Politics and Policy. Chris told us how we could access the articles if we don't have access to the journal. Chris also pointed out the Astrosociology website at www.astrosociology.org. If you are interested in the subject, contact Chris at chearsey@astrosociology.org. John from Atlanta was our next caller about transmitting VLF from space to submarines. As you will hear, this does not work. He also talked about the Republican debate and the NASA question asked of the candidates. Mark from Huntsville called in to give us an update on what was happening in and around MSFC. He said times were still tough, layoffs going on and even his position would end on Sept. 30 and he would likely leave the space industry. He talked about NASA having no budget nor the mindset for building a new heavy lift rocket in connection with the SLS. We also talked about milestones and NASA contracting. After a short break, we returned with our second segment in this two plus hour program with a call from Kelly. Kelly talked about New Space, Falcon rocket failure rates, Space X, SLS, Atlas 5, Delta IV, Orion, Ares V, and Constellation. He suggested New Space was going to be a big loser with Congress and this sparked several email and follow up calls as people wanted to challenge what he said. Later, Andrew called to refute Kelly's Falcon failure rate claims. Several listeners also sent in emails challenging Kelly's Falcon and New Space comments. One came from Andrew with an open letter to NASA from Sen. Shelby (www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1540). I was hoping for some discussion about the California Space Authority shutting down, a possible mini ice-age due to sunspot hibernation, plus some of the other potential topics I mentioned at the start of the program. All in all, it was a very busy Open Lines program. The phone never stopped ringing and lots of emails came in based on caller discussion comments. For your comments and questions about this discussion, post them on the blog URL above. If you want to email any of the callers or those who sent in an email, send it to me and I will forward it to the person of your choice. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:24:09 UTC
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Marc Kaufman, Tuesday, 6-14-11 (61.37MB; download) -- Guest: Marc Kaufman. Topics: First Contact, the search for ET life, exoplanets, astrobiology. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. Mr. Kaufman has a website which you can visit for more information, http://habitablezones.com. In addition, the book is available on the OGLF Amazon partners page and if you buy it through One Giant Leap and Amazon, Amazon will make a contribution to The Space Show. Please use http://www.amazon.com/dp/1439109001/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=onegialeafou-20. We started our discussion with Mr. Kaufman by asking about his two years of travel researching this topic. He said one of the most influential people he met that interested him in the exoplanets subject was Professor Sara Seager at MIT. I then suggested to Marc that we start our more detailed discussion of his book and the subject by looking at the three options for possible ET life in his last chapter. These options include (1) "We are alone in the universe and Earth is the only planet, moon, asteroid, comet, or undiscovered other body anywhere with life;" (2) "Only Earth has complex life;" (3) "Life exists beyond Earth and, in some instances, has become complex and most likely includes what we would consider intelligence." We then worked backwards in our discussion from the three options, asking Marc what there was in his research that led him to each of these possible outcomes. Later in the first segment, we talked about Martian methane and the work by Dr. Michael Mumma. Marshall called in with a question about evolution and creationism among religions people that he met with regarding his ET research. Marc had much to say on this topic.. Marshall also asked about the Fermi Paradox. You do not want to miss what Marc said about this. We started the second segment talking about the book "Rare Earth" by University of Washington researchers which attempts to explain why complex life is uncommon in the universe. This theory suggests that the physical conditions and other contributing factors leading to complex Earth life were very rare and sometimes even occurring by chance, thus they would be hard to duplicate at best. Do not miss what Marc had to say about this theory. Later in this segment, Karen asked for a time line for discovering ET life and Marc suggested that much of the effort was based on the funding received by NASA and ESA. Also, coming up with a realistic time line for ET discovery would be extremely difficult and prone to error. That said, Mr. Kaufman talked about the pace of new scientific discoveries that have the potential to lead to the discovery of ET life. John from Atlanta called in to talk about doubt and the "ultimate trajectory" for technical progress. We talked about the laws of physics, the multiverse, the Entropy Principle as previously discussed on The Space Show with Dr. Richard Gott, and an inflationary universe. We also talked about the publication of theories and the blogosphere attacks, citing the arsenic studies from Mono Lake, the more recent announcement about Martian microfossils by Dr. Richard Hoover, and the attacks on Dennis Wingo for his open letter in reply to the open letter by the three famous astronauts. If you have questions or comments for Marc Kaufman, post them on the blog URL above. Mr. Kaufman can be reached at kaufman@washpost.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:49:45 UTC
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AIAA ICES Conference, Monday, 6-13-11 (45.41MB; download) -- Guests: Dr. Klaus Dannenberg of AIAA, Dr. Jeff Farmer of NASA MSFC, David Williams of NASA JSC. Topics: AIAA 41st International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES). You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed Klaus Dannenberg back to the program along with Jeff Farmer and David Williams to discuss the upcoming AIAA ICES Conference to be held in Portland, OR from July 17-21, 2011. For more information, visit the AIAA ICES website at www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=230&lumeetingid=2450. Conference registration and hotel reservations can be made through this website. Also, note that the early bird registration discount expires midnight, June 20, 2011. Dr. Dannenberg stated us off with an overview of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) followed by a short summary of the ICES Conference, its history with the original primary sponsor, SAE, and then with AIAA as the primary sponsor. Our guests talked about the conference programs and multiple tracks and technical sessions offered during the conference. As you will hear, ICES focuses on topics related to humans living and working in space and hostile environments. There are more than 300 author presentation papers, lots of networking sessions, and important keynote addresses. The Monday kickoff keynote features Dr. James Reuther, Director for Strategic Integration in the Office of the NASA CTO and then on Wednesday, the keynote is by Dr. Bonnie Dunbar, former NASA astronaut, CEO of Dunbar International, LLC, and the director of the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Among the topics to be addressed by Dr. Dunbar include how to teach science and related topics to students. Our guests took us through the conference logistics as to hotel, conference registration fees, obtaining the conference proceedings, and even family tours being offered by the AIAA. We spent some time discussing the student fees and membership in AIAA and why student participation in AIAA is so important. We received listener questions asking if the conference would be too technical for those without a technical background. Simply put, no. Everyone attending will benefit from ICES, even those that are not engineers. As we started our second segment, Larry sent in a question asking about the differences between ICES and the AIAA Space series of conferences held each year in California (Space 2011 for example). Dr. Dannenberg carefully went over the differences in the two conferences which range in size as the Space conferences are far larger, drawing around 1,500 participants. Also, the Space conferences are much broader in content while ICES is smaller and focused on the environmental and related issues for human space development. The subject of bringing the family to Portland and activities for them while the AIAA member attends the conference came up. There are several AIAA tours available plus Portland is a city with lots of possible family activities so this is a great place for a summer family vacation tied to the ICES Conference. During this segment, each of our guests told us their favorite part of the ICES Conference. Each guest zeroed in on a different aspect of ICES. This discussion serves as a very good illustration of the diversity and broad appeal of this excellent conference. If you have questions or comments, as always, post on the blog URL above. Questions about AIAA and ICES can be sent to Dr. Dannenberg at KlausD@aiaa.org. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:54:17 UTC
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Dr. Dwayne Day, Sunday, 6-12-11 (59.58MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. Dwayne Day. Topics: Classified satellite programs in the U.S. from a historical perspective. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed Dr. Dwayne Day back to the show to discuss the history of United States spy satellite programs. Our discussion started out with a brief history of aerial reconnaissance which got its start during the Civil War with President Lincoln, Thaddeus Lowe, and balloons. In fact, the Smithsonian had an exhibit on the Mall over the weekend commemorating Mr. Lowe and what he did 150 years ago. This is an interesting story, don't miss it. Dr. Day then talked about the Corona Program and its declassification in 1995 under President Clinton. Two other programs were discussed, Hexagon and Gambit. Dr. Day responded to a question as to how the intelligence community could keep secrets as compared to the leaks in politics. This is an interesting analysis you don't want to miss. When asked if the U.S. had been ahead of the Soviet Union with spy satellites, Dr. Day said that we were likely five to ten years ahead of the Soviets all the time. We then spent some time discussing the film used in Corona and the other systems, what was unique about it, how it was returned to Earth, and then how it got to Eastman Kodak for processing over a four to five day process. Marshall asked a question about the differences in communication and spy satellite orbits. This started a discussion on how observers could tell based on satellite launches what might be a communication satellite or a spy satellite. We spent some time on this subject as our first segment ended and also during the early part of the second segment. At the very end of the first segment, we talked about the portrayal of spy satellite capabilities in movies and TV programs. As you will hear, the capabilities are vastly exaggerated for entertainment value. In our second segment, Marshall called in to ask about spy satellites and air launch with Pegasus to be more secretive. Dwayne suggested air launch did not have the capability to launch a meaningful payload for spy satellite purposes. Don't miss what he had to say about this issue. Marshall then asked about the Predator and Global Hawk. We spent lots of time on this technology as it is showing up as a strong future trend given the need to have resources over a given area for a long time. Listener Jack wanted to know more about X37-B and NFIRE. We then asked Dr. Day about ground resources compared to the need for spy satellite resources. Dwayne had much to say about this issue as well. John called in from Atlanta to ask about the possibility of VHS from space to communicate with submarines. John will research the topic and call in on Weds evening during Open Lines to let us know what he found out about this issue. We talked about the future of spy satellites, the size of them in the context of big vs. small, and the conditions that most support their use . Toward the end of our discussion, we talked about resolution issues and spy satellite resources used by other countries. Dr. Day had a few words about the Chinese spay program and we closed talking about his SF Chronicle book review today of a new book, "Area 51" by Annie Jacobsen. The SF Chronicle requires a subscription to see the review so I cannot post the URL. That said, you can read what Dr. Day had to say about the book in his Space Review article, www.thespacereview.com/article/1852/1. If you have questions or comments for Dr. Day, post them on the blog URL above. You can also email him at zirconic1@cox.net. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:02:18 UTC
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Pharis Williams, Friday, 6-10-11 (45.09MB; download) -- Guest: Pharis Williams. Topics: Physics, a new view of space-time matter, traditional and new physics, space travel. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed back Pharis Williams to discuss new views on space-time matter and his new book, "The Dynamic Theory." You can find this book on the OGLF Amazon Partners page and if you buy it there, Amazon will make a contribution to The Space Show (see www.amazon.com/dp/0615447112/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=onegialeafou-20). For more information, do visit the website for Pharis Williams at www.physicsandbeyond.com. We started our discussion with Mr. Williams by going over the three thermodynamic laws: (1) Conservation of Energy; (2) known as "nothing is free" law; (3) Absolute zero=no energy. Pharis explained these three laws in details then he talked about how the laws of thermodynamics have never been seen to fail. This took us to his discussion of the Williams five dimensional Dynamic Theory. I then asked Pharis to summarize his book and tell us what was new in physics regarding his work. His book has a final chapter, Chapter 13 What's New starting on page 429. Before the end of the first segment, Pharis talked about the fundamental law, mechanical entropy, and entropy and geometry. In this discussion, he talked about stability conditions and what they mean. The last topic discussed in the first segment was in response to a question from Bob about the process for alternative science work to make it to mainstream and be taken seriously. Pharis had much to say on this subject, don't miss it. In the second segment, John from Atlanta called in with several advanced and technical questions for our guest concerning his work on mass and the fifth dimension. The unified theory came up for discussion as did work by Weyl and others. This is a somewhat technical discussion so be prepared to go through it slowly with our guest and caller. In our third and final segment, we talked about our author's work and space travel plus the Earth flyby anomalies for satellites. Pharis told us how his Dynamic Theory addressed this issue. You can read more about it on his website at www.physicsandbeyond.com/pdf/Explaining%20Earth%20flyby%20anomalies%20modified.pdf
As our program neared its completion, Pharis received a listener question from Ted about conference reaction and one on one exchanges with him regarding his out of the box theories. You don't want to miss what Pharis said about speaking at conferences and audience response to his work/theories. If you have a comment or question for Pharis Williams, post it on The Space Show blog URL above. You can also email Mr. Williams at willres@sdc.org.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 11 Jun 2011 04:03:35 UTC
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Major Darren Rhyne, Tuesday, 6-7-11 (47.88MB; download) -- Guest: Major Darren Rhyne, USAF. Topics: Afghanistan, Afghan First, Coalition forces, Afghanistan from the inside military perspective. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed Major Darren Rhyne, USAF, to the program to tell us about Afghanistan from an insider's point of view and from the perspective of an Air Force officer having just completed his one year deployment in country. We went off the space topic for this special program. Major Rhyne has been a Space Show listener for years and continued listening while in Afghanistan. Were are most appreciative of the Major's service our country and freedom. Our discussion started out with the Major receiving orders to Kabul in Dec. 2009. He described his first impressions of the country, his expectations, and where the expectations were not met. Major Rhyne said the area he was in was like the high dessert area of Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. During this segment, he addressed Afghan literacy which is about 40% in the cities and around 10% outside the cities. He also said it was very hard to tell who the bad guy was, sometimes even among the Afghan people he worked with through his job. Darren was asked about touring the area, going to entertainment in the cities, go to Pakistan, and more. As you will hear, going out after dark was a huge thing with restrictions and rules. For example, not only did he need the authority, he could not go out alone and he had to wear 40 lbs of armor protection and take his rifle with him. Toward the end of the first segment, we started talking about Darren's first of four articles, "Afghan First: Building a Stable Economy Through Strategic Acquisition (see www.dau.mil/pubscats/ATL%20Docs/May-June11/Rhyne.pdf). I will announce his additional articles when available on The Space Show but they will be posted in the same place as his first article above. As we started the second segment, we continued discussing Afghan First and we responded to questions by Richard and other listeners. Richard wanted to know if Darren saw any relationship between NASA trying to stimulate commercial space services by providing contracts to US industry and DoD's attempt to stimulate Afghan industry via the "Afghan First" policy. We then asked Darren about paying attention to the shuttle flights when he was there and the space awareness of those there. He talked about the use of GPS and satellite internet services being made available with a contractor through Singapore . Later in the segment, Darren was asked about his space interest in general and we talked about Afghanistan in the context of the recent movie, "Charlie Wilson's War." In our third segment, Richard called in to talk about the experiences his son had teaching in Afghanistan with the USAID program. If you have questions or comments for Major Rhyne, please post them on the blog URL above. You can also email him at darrenrhyne@yahoo.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:32:05 UTC
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Robert (Bob) Zimmerman, Monday, 6-6-11 (59.60MB; download) -- Guest: Robert (Bob) Zimmerman. Topics: Space policy and space news updates, commercial space. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed Bob Zimmerman back to the program to discuss space news, policy, and commercial space from his perspective. Also visit his website/blog, http://behindtheblack.com which covers science, space, technology, and stories of interest on a variety of topics. For those of you who follow Zimmerman Space Show discussions, this one will not disappoint. Bob was hard hitting, pointed, controversial, and as usual, took no prisoners in discussing space, policy, and commercial space from his perspective. When we started our interview, I asked him about the status of our space program & he immediately said the idea of a space program was faulty. Listen to his comments for the details. When talking about government funding for the emerging commercial companies, he was most critical as well. The next topic we moved to dealt with cost overruns on the James Webb Space Telescope and if those higher costs could eventually impact other segments of the NASA budget. Bob had much to say on this subject. We then addressed the issue of the NASA budget for the coming year. Will it be cut, what might be cut? What about funding for the CCDEV program and what would the companies of CCDEV2 do without government funding. Bob speculates on this scenario, don't miss it. Toward the end of the segment, Bob told us about seeing the recent Discovery shuttle launch and we talked about seeing shuttle launches in general, both from the VIP section and by the side of the road. I do urge all of you to put forth the effort to see the last shuttle launch with Atlantis. I promise you the trip to the Cape will be well worth it, especially if you have never seen a shuttle launch. As we started the second segment of our two hour program, we talked about the Bob Zubrin plan for humans to Mars that Bob announced at ISDC. I suggested it was good that Dr. Zubrin put a time line/date on going to Mars but Mr. Zimmerman was all over that idea saying dates were proven failures and he listed some examples. Zimmerman was highly critical of the Zubrin plan. Listen to his comments to find out why. In this discussion, we talked about human factors and life support issues, large payload landings on Mars, and as our guest pointed out, technical challenges with repair and maintenance of the spaceship used for the Mars mission. We talked about the need for finding out about gravity and duration requirements for humans spending lots of time in space. Listener Tim called us from Huntsville to take issue with what Bob was saying about the needed timeline for going to Mars with crew. See what you think about this "debate." If you have comments or questions for Bob Zimmerman, post them on our Space Show blog using the above URL. You can also email Mr. Zimmerman at zimmerman at nasw dot org. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:34:55 UTC
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Thomas Hoffmann, Sunday, 6-5-11 (58.88MB; download) -- Guest: Thomas Hoffmann. Topics: Future Scenarios for Space Commerce Through Scenario Development and planning. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. Note that Mr. Hoffmann's Space Studies term paper that was discussed in this show will be posted below this summary on The Space Show blog per the URL above. We welcomed Mr. Hoffmann to the program to discuss alternative futuristic scenarios for space commerce and how such scenarios are developed. Tom explained scenario planning and development for us and we used several hypothetical commercial space to illustrate scenario development. Our examples involved Space X, humans to Mars by 2030, the back counting method, and other well known commercial space participants and programs. We also talked about existing scenarios such as the OECD Space 2030 series, the Air Force Schreiver Games and more. Tom told us how Shell Oil used scenario development to deal with changes in the oil industry and how effective Shell was due to the use of scenario alternatives. We talked about the application of scenario development for New Space, NASA, and even start-up businesses. In our second segment, Marshall called in and among the issues he talked about, he brought up space solar power (SSP). This prompted me to go over the lack of a business case and economics for SSP short of political policy manipulation of energy costs and markets. I also mentioned a recent article in Salon.com by Michael Lind titled "Everything you've heard about fossil fuels may be wrong." You can read this article at www.salon.com/news/env/energy/?story=/politics/war_room/2011/05/31/linbd_fossil_fuels. During this segment, Mr. Hoffmann talked about the OECD reports/scenarios, "Space 2030." Frequent listeners to the program know that we have done several programs on this excellent OECD series of reports. Also in this segment, Tom told us about typical scenario development consulting and toward the end of our scenario discussion, he recommended two text books for those of us wanting more information on the subject. Near the end of the program, I asked Tom about our spiritual connection to outer space given his role as a United Methodist pastor. We talked about religion and the potential confirmation of ET life in the universe, specifically past life on Mars. Tom had much to say on this issue and our spiritual connection to space, told us about the famous UK author C.S. Lewis and what he had to say about possible ET Life. Don't miss this final discussion. For questions and comments, please post them on the blog URL above. Tom Hoffmann can be reached by email using tom@fastforeward.net. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:46:36 UTC
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Dr. John Brandenburg, Friday, 6-3-11 (61.63MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. John Brandenburg. Topics: Life on Mars. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. To purchase Dr. Brandenburg's new book, "Life and Death On Mars," please do so through the OGLF Amazon Partners link at www.amazon.com/dp/1935487361?tag=onegialeafou-20. In the first of two segments in this two hour interview, Dr. Brandenburg said that having found microfossils in the CI meteorites as reported in the work of Dr. Richard Hoover in the Journal of Cosmology, past life on Mars is confirmed and this is the now the period of our experiencing the Second Copernican Revolution. Most of the first segment focused on past life on Mars, what it means, what groups oppose this conclusion and why. Here Dr. Brandenburg talked about political and social agendas that adversely impact the disclosure of life elsewhere in the universe. Later, we talked about the upcoming Mars Science Lab (MSL) experiment, methane vents, Viking, and more. Dr. Brandenburg did say that Mars was geothermally completely dead and then put this science in the context of STEM education and why space and science are so important for inspiring students to do the hard STEM work. He also said our space program was steeped in geopolitics and talked about the global impact of our space shuttles and the U.S. space program. John received several listener questions about the Martian biosphere and he talked about Mars once having had an ocean. He suggested the Mars climate system collapsed around 500 million years ago. In reference to the biosphere, he talked about the Lyot impact crater. In the second segment we talked about terreforming Mars and using Phobos as a main base to explore Mars. The issue of a manned flight to Mars came up and our guest took on several spirited questions in an intense debate from listeners revolving around human factors issues and the ability to land a large payload on Mars. I referenced an earlier Space Show program on the payload landing issue with a program from Nov. 13, 2009 with Drs. Braun and Manning as guests (http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1256-BWB-2009-11-13.mp3). As Dr. Brandenburg was discussing Martian colonization, listeners asked him if Martian gravity was suitable for sustaining functional human life. Don't miss what our guest had to say about this and other life support issues for humans going to and living on Mars. Toward the end of the program, we talked about the Xenon 129 and natural nuclear reactors on Earth and probably on Mars. As our interview was ending, Dr. Brandenburg outlined what he suggested as the best path for a manned Mars mission, he talked about the Tidus Bodes Law and the Quantum Gem Gravity Theory. If you have questions or comments for Dr. Brandenburg, post them on the blog URL above. Dr. Brandenburg can be emailed using spaceranger137@yahoo.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 04 Jun 2011 14:33:21 UTC
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Dr. Tom Matula, Tuesday, 5-31-11 (62.49MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. Tom Matula. Topics: Space commerce, closing the commercial space business case. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed our friend Dr. Thomas Matula back to the show to talk about commercial space develop now and in the future, with or without the support of NASA. Dr. Matula will definitely stir the pot with some of his comments and conclusions regarding commercial space development and the current state of the industry. We started off with Tom suggesting that we do not have commercial space just because of a fix priced contract or a Space Act Agreement. The government is the customer, the primary source of money and government needs and specs are driving the industry at this time. He said over and over again during our two hour program that the challenge for the commercial companies is to be able to resist being overwhelmed and taken over by the government to be just another government contracting company. He suggested this happened to Orbital and when pushed for an example of a company from any business or industry that withstood the changes forced on them through government money and oversight, he could not think of even one example. This was based on a question I asked him near the end of the program. Listeners asked him about the space tourism market as a driver and he had much to say about this throughout our discussion. In terms of public/private partnerships, early in the show he talked about COMSAT and that type of model, comparing it what is happening now in the industry. I think you will find his COMSAT comparison most interesting as it does differ from the developing commercial industry of today. Other topics discussed included lunar mining and here Tom suggested it would be robots that commercially open the Moon, not people. As you will hear him say throughout the discussion, commercial will prove to include a small number of people supporting robotic money making opportunities on the Moon and elsewhere in space. He said real commercial will only happen when the projects serve the markets and needs of people on Earth. As our discussion evolved, he talked about starting small and scaling up. Later in the program, Tom made it clear that taking government money was very risky and he urged commercial space businesses to seek markets elsewhere. When challenged for markets today, he said they had to find them because the risk of being overwhelmed by the government world was very very high. In the second segment, we talked about visionary business leadership and management. When a listener asked him for a time line and the priorities for developing a commercial space industry, he said 15-20 years and that first, markets with Earth value had to be found and exploited and then a working business model had to be developed. He repeated his call for commercial companies to look for other markets, not the government. Earlier in the program, Tony sent in an article which I partially read about a San Francisco businessman paying $100K to bright kids to work on their dream project and not go to college. You can read about this at http://ww2.ajcmobile.com/autojuice/?targetUrl=http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/tech-mogul-pays-bright-961292.html. If you have questions or comments for Dr. Tom Matula, post them on blog URL above. You can also email him through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Wed, 01 Jun 2011 16:49:21 UTC
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